This New York Times article makes me think that many more Chinese need to drive in rush hour traffic before making any more transportation decisions.
Two years ago, Guangzhou proudly announced that the number of cars on its roads had reached 1 million. The metropolis of 10 million people has several auto factories, and aspires to be China's Detroit. Last year, 180,000 new vehicles hit the city's roads, the government said. That's nearly 500 a day.
From an economic standpoint, this makes perfect sense, right? Car manufacturing certainly supports more jobs than bicycling manufacturing, or repair. With a population of 1 billion+, those in the industry are poised to make significant amounts of money. It's hard to argue against such growth. So long as as the Chinese government supports such rapid dissemination of the automobile, that growth will not slow down. What does this mean for China's future urban landscape?
Given China's history with the bicycle, used purely out of necessity, not an efficient, fashionable, eco-friendly, (whatever your reason), mode of transport, the desire for autos makes sense. It's a shame really - will the Chinese like sitting in traffic as much as most Americans seem to enjoy?
